– You are too smart to go to a vocational school. You must study.
That was the message Ayat Saeid received from the career counselor at secondary school.
– Joke’s on him, jokes Ayat today.
Now she is an adult apprentice at the Volvo Truck Center at Rud in Bærum. Here she learns the skills she needs to become a heavy vehicle mechanic.
A heavy vehicle mechanic works with the repair and maintenance of trucks, buses and other heavy vehicles.
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Adult apprentice
- Adults over the age of 21 can enter into an apprenticeship contract with an apprenticeship company, even if you have not completed upper secondary school.
- Adult apprentices must themselves find a company that can take them on as an apprentice.
- The apprenticeship as an adult apprentice is usually four years.
Source: NHO Building Industry
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– Doesn’t look like you work with trucks
Ayat is wearing a large gray work jacket and dirty navy blue work trousers.
– I can’t wear overalls. The sizes are unisex, but they don’t fit me. Women’s sizes are not produced, says the apprentice.
She is the workshop’s only female employee.
The ladies’ cloakroom is initially only for her to use, but it is also the only one of the two cloakrooms that has a shower. The men at the workshop therefore have to agree with Ayat before they shower, so that they do not use the changing room at the same time as her.
– You probably didn’t think about the need for a separate women’s wardrobe when you built the workshop, says Ayat.
It’s not so scary to be the only woman in the workshop. Ayat often feels like “one of the guys”, and the customers like to strike up a conversation about how it is positive to see more ladies working in the workshop.
Those she meets in her spare time are often surprised when they hear what she works on.
– I’ve heard that “you don’t look like you work with trucks”.
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– Talk to the young people
After high school, Ayat began a year’s study in Russian. It was not for her, it turned out. She dropped out.
She then began a bachelor’s degree in archaeology. Here she only attended compulsory lectures, and spent more time working as a waitress than in the reading room. She disliked the academic texts.
– It was a bit awkward to realize that I wasn’t as smart as the counselor at school thought, recalls Ayat.
– Perhaps it shows that school counselors must become better at talking to the young people about what they want, and not just look at the grades. We should encourage people to try and take professional certificates, instead of taking various silly years of study because they don’t know what they want.
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Girl gang
Ayat has been unionized for all the years she has worked. Now she is a youth leader at the Fellesforbundet’s Department 1, and is also a member of the Fellesforbundet’s central youth committee.
Through Fellesforbundet, Ayat got to know three girls who are apprentices in male-dominated trades. They also inspired her to become an adult apprentice.
– If I had known about the opportunity before, I would have done it sooner, states Ayat.
The female apprentice gang has kept in touch, and are good at supporting each other in everyday life.
– We sometimes meet to share both frustrations and victories with each other, she says.
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